If you were like me last night, you set your alarm for the dead of night. Then when the alarm went off, you wiped the crust from your eyes, opened your MacBook, hit refresh a bunch of times, looked at the clock, cursed Apple, switched to your iPad, spend a bunch of money, and went back to bed. This is how it’s been for quite some time now. It’s the same horrible process every September, as predictable as a mountain…

Bargains are in a bit of a lull before the holidays arrive, but there are still a few decent deals out there. Right now, Dell is offering a 15-inch gaming laptop with a Core i5 Kaby Lake processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card for $800, and IPS screen. That last detail—the IPS screen—makes this price particularly appealing, given our experience with the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming earlier this year. Back at launch, we loved its performance but…

We live and work in a cold, cruel world where our laptops can take a lot of abuse. Regardless of how gentle we try to be, our notebooks will probably be dropped, spilled upon or worse—sooner, if not later. But if you think that all notebook damage can be repaired only by the manufacturer or a computer shop, think again. Many problems can be inexpensively and easily fixed with common tools, spare parts, and a little effort. Some repairs are…

Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung may be competing for smartwatch sales, but the companies have similar issues when it comes to health advancements in their wearables: too much red tape. Now the three companies are part of a new government-run pilot program that aims to change that. The Food and Drug Administration has selected nine tech companies out of a pool of more than 100 to participate in the program, which aims to fast-track health innovations in software and products. The companies participating…

With Apple finally bringing native wireless charging to its iPhone lineup, the technology will become far more widely adopted, both among consumers and within corporations. Apple chose to use the Qi specification, which uses inductive charging technology, for its iPhone 8 and iPhone X lineup of smartphones. Samsung committed to the same specification for its flagship Galaxy smartphones; in all, about 90 smartphone models use Qi today, making it the industry's most popular among three standards. In addition to desktop charging stations…

On Monday, Microsoft kicked off preorders for the Windows mixed reality devices that will hook in to the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. A new Samsung Odyssey head-mounted display (HMD) joins the existing stock from Acer, Dell, and others. Microsoft also announced two new mixed-reality services: the virtual-reality social network AltspaceVR, which Microsoft recently acquired, and a new VR experience from Halo developer 343 Industries, called Halo: Recruit. Alex Kipman, a technical fellow at Microsoft and creator of the company’s HoloLens HDM, gave…

Intel’s 6-core 8th generation Core i7-8700K CPU is the reality check to high-performance, high-priced CPUs like the $2,000 Core i9 and $1,000 AMD Ryzen Threadripper. The real battle for the desktop and consumer’s wallets is with this amazingly affordable (for Intel anyway) $359 CPU, code-named Coffee Lake. In fact, the Core i7-8700K is Intel’s first real response to AMD’s breakthrough series of Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 CPUs, and a viable alternative to the Zen-based CPUs. But just how fast is it, and which CPU should you…

Apple Watch Series 3 has relieved my Forgotten Phone Anxiety. You know the feeling: You reach your destination and paw at the outside of your pocket to feel the phone-sized lump and it isn’t there. And you panic. Mind you, my stomach still drops when I realize my phone isn’t with me (even times when I had purposefully left it at home), but now my fears quickly subside. With an LTE-equipped Apple Watch Series 3 on my wrist, I don’t need to turn…

Will 2018 be the year Chrome OS devices emerge as mainstream computers in the corporate world? Not a chance. Microsoft Windows is predicted to represent 85% of worldwide PC shipments next year, with macOS at 8% and Chrome at 6%, according to IDC. But consider this: In 2017, 5.5% of all PCs sold will be Chrome OS devices, according to IDC analyst Linn Huang. This marks the first time a third operating system has joined Windows and macOS in crossing…

Apple users have unwittingly discovered a new feature after installing iOS 11 on their mobile devices: when you toggle your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth quick settings to "off" those services remain on for Apple services. For example, Location Services is still enabled, and Handoff and Instant Hotspot stay on, even when iPhones and iPads are put in "Airplane Mode." The change in iOS 11 has come under criticism because it could expose users to security risks. Because iOS 10 allowed users to perform…

The launch of a big Microsoft Windows 10 update like the Creators Updateisn’t the end of a process — it’s really just the beginning. As soon as a major update is released, Microsoft quickly gets to work on improving it by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features. Here we’ve summarized what you need to know about every Windows 10 update since the Creators Update, with the most recent on top. For each build, we’ve included the date…

Microsoft today will deliver the final security update for Windows 10's first feature upgrade, the version released in November 2015. Windows 10 1511 -- Microsoft labels its feature upgrades in a yymm format -- will receive its last security patches, then fall off Microsoft's support list. The company had announced 1511's retirement several times in the past, notably in a support lifecycle fact sheet on Microsoft's website. Today is also October's "Patch Tuesday," the month's release of security updates for Microsoft's products. The company…

Kotlin is on its way to overtaking Java on that mobile platform, claims mobile database maker Realm. Realm performed an anonymized assessment of 100,000 developers using its database and which languages they were using, determined by developers’ selection of SDKs. Realm found that 20 percent of apps built with Java before Google’s May endorsement of Kotlin are now being built in Kotlin. Based on that data, Realm predicts Kotlin will overtake Java on Android by December 2018. Kotlin may even change how Java…

My family went on plenty of road trips when I was a young lad, and they made for some of my happiest childhood memories. One of those I recall fondly was a game we played to pass the time as we covered hundreds of kilometers driving to and from our favorite destinations – and I recently rediscovered it in the form of an Android app. As far as I know, the game doesn’t have an official name – but I’ve found a…

Twitter is working on a bookmarking button so you can save tweets to read later, for posterity or whatever else – without having to ‘heart’ it, reports BuzzFeed News. That’ll certainly come in handy, especially for the scores of users (myself included) who enjoy using Twitter to discover interesting content. In addition to the bookmarking button, there’ll also be a dedicated section within the app to help you go through your saved items. Here’s what that might look like: For Hack Week @Twitter we…

During its annual special event yesterday, Apple lifted the lid on its all-new iPhoneX – a handset it labels the future of smartphones. But it seems the future will be a little more of a hassle for developers and designers, than it will be for consumers. The iPhone X represents a significant departure from the iterative form factors we’ve come to expect from Apple, introducing an enhanced (almost) edgeless OLED display, a new FaceID facial recognition technology and a rounded all-glass design. But perhaps its most eye-catching aspect currently…

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Value Ero was set up as a hobby and a way to express views on consumer technology, business technology and write editorials surrounding frustrating executive decisions made by tech companies. It is now a rather huge website, delivering unique guides, features, infographics and stories for tech hungry consumers. Value Ero is now more successful than ever, with over a hundred thousand monthly visitors and a growing social media following.